Monday, June 28, 2010

Spinning Again

The blue lace sweater is now sewn together and finished. It looks okay on me, but I either need to find a shirt to go with it, or give up on it and pass it on....

I have finally started spinning again. I was planning to start the fiber I had put next to the wheel sometime this week, but then I realized the tour de fleece starts next saturday. So, friday night I pulled it out for just a few minutes and made sure everything was running smoothly. I haven't spun since we put in new seating, but everything works well together and I have spun for at least a short while every day since then. I never have joined an official team for tour de fleece, but i do tend to spin for it every year so far.

I also started the next pair of socks for my husband. He had some yarn he loved and had started some socks with a new pattern, but it wasn't working, so he handed over the yarn and I'm now making a plain pair of socks with it. It is fun stripey yarn and I'm enjoying working with it. I am almost (within 5 rows?) ready to start the heel, and then i get to start the second sock probably.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Sweater Blocked

I finished the blue lace sweater tuesday night. I managed to block it yesterday, and because it is cotton I was worried about it taking forever to dry in this humid weather, so instead I dry blocked it! (This involves pinning the sweater out to the right measurements - making sure it stretches right and the edges are straight - and then spraying it with water)

I ended up having to refill my little spray bottle three or four times, so if I plan on doing this again I might want to purchase a bigger spray bottle, but since I had the pieces pinned out on foam boards the water didn't damage anything and it was dry this morning!

Due to other chores I might get to sewing it today, or I might have to wait another day or so anyway, but at least I was able to unpin, neatly fold, and put everything away so I'm not worried about the kids getting to it!

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Lace - Socks and Sweater

After working on the socks for my husband (with fingering weight yarn), the vest for me (out of dk weight yarn), and the tunic for my daughter (out of fingering weight yarn), it felt really nice to work with some sport weight yarn, especially this sport weight yarn, Knit One, Crochet Too Ambrosia is 70% alpaca, 20% silk, and 10% cashmere.



These socks were knit up so quickly, not only was the yarn a heavier weight than I am used to making socks with, the lace made them even faster!



I actually knit three feet, as the second one I made I realized my gauge had changed too much to have them both match and fit. So I ripped out and went up a needle size for the second sock.



I had bought this yarn several years ago at Webs, and it's been sitting in my stash for a long time, waiting to be made into this exact pair of socks the whole time. It's nice to finally have them in my drawer instead of my bin of yarn and fiber.


At the same time I bought the yarn for the socks I also purchased yarn for a sweater. I finally started that also.



I'm almost done with the sweater and hoping to have it completely done within another week or so. If you look at my queue on ravelry I only have 6 items listed now, the socks and sweater were the items that had been on there the longest, it's nice to feel like I'm finally accomplishing some things that have been on there for years!

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Socks, Vest, Tunic and More

When I posted about my birthday one item hadn't arrived yet... I had commented on this listing on etsy to my husband right around my birthday and he surprised me by ordering it for a late present.



I haven't been spinning lately, but I have plans this week to at least start some again.


Soon after he returned from a trip for work I (a month or two ago) had finished brown socks for my husband.



I forgot to take a picture right when I finished them, and he wore them the next day, so if they look a little stretched it's because he just took them off!



He already handed me yarn for another pair which I am planning to start within the next couple of weeks... I love doing the plain socks, I can knit while watching tv or while watching children - which means they got done quicker than patterned socks!


I finished my first steeked project!



Unfortunately I ran out of the green yarn about 1/4 of the way through the neck ribbing! Someone else on ravelry had listed the same yarn, same dye lot in their stash and was willing to swap me it for some of the yarn in my stash! I only had to wait a couple of days (Well, less than a week) for it to arrive. I worked on the brown socks and finished them while waiting and then finished up the vest as soon as the yarn arrived.



I love how the vest looks on me, but you will have to wait until I buy a new shirt to go with it, as I don't have anything that looks great under it yet! I will post pics here or on ravelry or both once I've made that purchase.



I originally made these slippers for my husband, but I left them in the washer felting a smidge too long and while he could fit into them they weren't comfortable. So I promised him a new pair in the fall and I felted these a bit more and gave them to my dad instead. My mom already purchased nice leathery bottoms for them (and got them in the mail) and just needs to sew them on and he'll have a great warm and non-slick pair of slippers!

I also finished the weaving!


I had done one set of napkins already and after christmas I warped the loom for another set. My family loves using large cloth napkins at meals and although we bought a bunch at ikea I really liked the look of the handmade ones. I finished weaving on my birthday in april and then finally took the couple of days needed and finished most of them for my daughter's tea party that she had for her june birthday. A couple of days later I finished the rest and now the loom is returned and the weaving yarn is back with the stash... perhaps sometime for christmas or spring I'll look into getting a cricket loom or another small loom that I can use for a while and pack away otherwise. I did enjoy weaving though!


Last year when we went to the MA sheep and wool was when my daughters discovered their love for weaving and we originally borrowed the large floor loom from my wonderful neighbors. This year we went to sheep and wool and the family enjoyed seeing the sheep, shearing, sheep dogs for the first time, kool aid dying, lots of things for sale, friends (fun bumping into our neighbors and their friends and sharing their fries!), and a tiny hay maze and play area!




We kept our purchases in check as we are slowly realizing how anti-surplus-consumerism we really are (yes we have stashes, mine - yarn and fiber - fit into four rubbermade bins, my husband's fit into another two and I'm comfortable with that amount). We purchased some new fiber for each of the girls (the pink for 'curly', the yellow and half the brown for 'lily', the green and rest of the brown, and the bright colorful one for me) and some patterns and the yarn for them for my husband. All of my stuff is already added into my ravelry stash page - which I love for knowing what is in those four buckets when I find a new pattern I want to make! If you love the look of something and don't want to go searching on ravelry (or don't belong) ask me and I can tell you what it is!


Also for my youngest daughter's birthday I finished a tunic for her!



I was actually shocked, I worked on it for a couple of weeks and she never asked what it was... I guess they are used to me knitting strange things and just being so excited about them that I explain what they are randomly, but she never knew it was for her, until I was *almost* done with it on her birthday... I told her, tried it on her, finished the last set of pattern and then did the bottom edge and washed and blocked it.



She was very excited about it and twirled in it every time she's put it on so far. She couldn't wait to show her friends, so she wore it to a birthday party she was invited to less than a week after her birthday!

Monday, June 21, 2010

Welcome Baby

In the ongoing process of catching up and then trying to keep up, I noticed I hadn't ever posted this blanket/bear combo...



I loved making this blanket. I knew I was going to make something for this new baby, and the mother mentioned that she had been looking through patterns because grandma wanted to make something also, so I asked her to send a pattern she liked my way.



I did spend a tiny bit extra to make this out of cotton, like the pattern called for, and I'm so glad I did. It was fun to work with and made a gorgeous finished baby blanket.




Even though this wasn't a first baby for the family we wanted to welcome her and so we had a casual fun shower, about three weeks after she was born. Since I had all the extra time I had the blanket and bear done ahead of time.



Since I still had time left before the day of the shower, I had a lot of fun embellishing the bear and the outfit. My kids all loved the bear and were sad to see it go.



I think this is one of my favorite combinations...